I located the fitting I thought was missing — it was in the box with the CoPilot computer. So I finished the hookup of the Greasecar system to the coolant system last night and refilled the truck with pink coolant.

I dropped the transmission pan, replaced the filter, cleaned the pan, and replaced it (reusing the factory gasket, which the pan says is reusable). There was a lot of metal gunk on the magnet in the pan, but that’s pretty typical. I didn’t see anything unusual. The ATF was dark but clear and didn’t seem to contain metal particles, so I think the transmission is in good shape.

I refilled the transfer case with ATF. It takes an amazing amount to fill to the bottom of the drain plug. Something like 6-7 quarts.

I fired the truck up and found no leaks. Everything was normal and the heating coils in the grease tank and around the grease filter are both getting hot, as is the new coolant filter.

I vacuumed the air conditioning system and added ~37 oz. of R134a. The air conditioning now works great, and I’ve verified with a meat thermometer that it’s blowing about 40 degrees F — right where it should be.

The brake pedal no longer sinks to the floor when holding the pedal down. Flushing and bleeding seem to have done the trick. I still have not inspected the pads or rotors, however.

I replaced the passenger side headlight, which was a more involved project than I had thought it would be. If you need to replace one of these in the future, there are two 10mm nuts behind the headlight that hold it in place. They aren’t easy to see, but they are there.

I’ve made considerable progress toward getting the grease system working. I plumbed the grease tank to the engine compartment and installed the filter/heat exchanger (bolted to the side of the alternator bracket). I discovered that I am missing the fitting that lets me connect the top of the filter/heat exchanger to the coolant return line to the water pump, but I ordered a replacement for $9 from GreaseCar. Upon further investigation, however, it appears they use a different fitting if you’re going to use a temperature sensor with the Co-Pilot computer (which isn’t even made anymore) — so maybe that fitting is in the box with the Co-Pilot. I need to look.

I ordered a coolant filter kit and installed it. Since installing it and installing the Greasecar kit both require coolant to be drained from the engine — and since I wanted a coolant filter — I decided to do both projects at the same time. I’m replacing the coolant with some pink Fleet Charge I got at Tractor Supply. I also installed a flush tee and flushed the cooling system with three quarts of Evap-O-Rust Thermocure. That stuff seems to work well, but be sure to wear gloves; it caused the skin to peel off both my hands.

I drained the transmission (so nice to have a drain plug!) but was surprised to only get about two gallons of ATF out of it, when I was expecting a little more than twice that much. Then I remembered that the torque converter holds about half the fluid, so I’m going to have to rotate the TC drain plug into view and drain it, too. This transmission takes plain old Dex/Merc, so that’s easy and cheap.

Longer-term, I want to rebuild the turbocharger with a kit I bought on eBay (an SP TurBoost 813-1001-001, 817-1004-002F), and I want to replace the exhaust system from the turbo to the rear of the truck. Those two kind of go hand-in-hand, since I will have to remove the turbo to rebuild it, and that’s a good time to R&R the exhaust system.